NORECO 2 implements power rate hike

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  – Power consumers under the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative 2 (NORECO 2) are in for the latest round of electric rate adjustments that took effect in February and will be reflected in the March billing statement.

The latest rate adjustment came after the generation rate increase by one of NORECO 2’s power suppliers, Green Core Geothermal, Inc., a subsidiary of the Energy Development Corporation.

NORECO 2 acting general manager Dionefred Macahig, in a radio interview, said Green Core had increased its rates as stipulated in the contract signed by both parties on the escalation and de-escalation of pricing.

He further said the increase comes a little over a year since NORECO 2 and Green Core signed a power supply agreement that also provides for a rate hike based on the consumer price index related to the fuel cost price and the steam cost of the power supplier.

Both parties signed an agreement on December 2010 and, since then, this is the first time Green Core has imposed an increase in power generation rates, which has the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Effective last February, the average residential consumer will be charged P10.46 per kilowatt hour, compared to the previous rate of P9.67 per kilowatt hour.

Manny Candelaria, Green Core’s deputy manager for Electricity and Steam Sales Department, confirmed the increase in generation rates of suppliers of NORECO 2 for the February 2012 billing period.

He said Green Core hiked its rate by about 5 percent while another NORECO 2’s power supplier, the coal-fired Korean Electric Power Company in Cebu, had increased by 10 percent for the same billing period.

Green Core only imposes an adjustment in generation rates once a year using the consumer price index, Candelaria added. (FREEMAN)